terça-feira, 23 de novembro de 2010

A hardworking Brooklyn mother was hacked to death early this morning allegedly by her sword-wielding, bit-actor son during a bizarre religious meltdown in which he screamed Bible passages and made obscure references to Freemasonry, police and witnesses said.

Greg Clare, who lives downstairs from victim Yannick Brea, 55, shared with her son Michael Brea, a 31-year-old actor and low-level Freemason who had roles in "Ugly Betty" and the movie "Step Up 3D," said he first heard screams about 1 a.m.

"He kept chanting: ‘Repent! Repent! Repent!’" Clare said, referring to Brea. "He kept asking her if she believed in Jesus Christ, if she believed in God. She was yelling ‘Help me! Help me!’"

Another neighbor said Brea kept calling for the "architect of the universe," a term used by Freemasons to refer to a supreme being. And a police source said the murder weapon was a three-foot ceremonial Masonic sword.

A police official said 911 calls started coming in about 1:12 a.m. reporting a domestic argument in the second floor apartment on Park Place. Cops arrive minutes later and could hear Brea chanting Biblical terms behind the locked door but heard no indication of a fight.

Then a neighbor told them he could see blood on the windowsill from his own apartment so cops followed him, confirmed the blood, and then kicked in the front door.

Once inside they saw Brea brandishing the large sword, and called Emergency Services Unit for backup, which is standard practice according to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.

"It was a barricaded situation," Kelly said. "When there is a barricade situation responding patrol officers, if possible, wait for Emergency Services Unit to respond, they’re trained psychological technicians, they have additional equipment that enables them to perhaps better protect themselves to go through the door."

Neighbor Clinton Clare, Greg’s father, told a different story.

"I heard moaning and then silence. They just kept standing there for 45 minutes. I think she’d be alive if they hadn’t taken so long," Clare said.

Clare said the police kept asking him if he had a key to the Brea’s apartment, and eventually left to call for backup. When ESU arrived, they knocked down the door about 2:20 a.m. and found a gruesome scene, with Yannick kneeling in the bathroom with multiple stab wounds to her head.

Yannick Brea’s family was furious with the police response.

"When I heard what happened I went crazy," said Yannick’s sister Gina Bumond, a nurse who lives in Flatbush. "I heard police didn’t knock the door down. Are you serious? She could be alive today."

Bumond described her sister as a loving parent devoted to her sons.

Serge Marcel, 53, Yannick’s brother, said Michael had no history of mental illness or substance abuse the family was aware of.

"I never knew this kid could do something like that," he said.

Michael Brea was taken into custody and then to Kings County Hospital, where he is undergoing psychiatric evaluation. Charges are pending against Brea, whom Kelly said had no criminal record.

Two other neighbors, Vernal Bent and his mother Phyllis, said they heard yelling from the floor below.

"I heard a shriek and a woman yelling ‘help me,’¤" Vernal Bent said. "We called 911 and we kept hearing screams and then we didn’t hear them any more. Michael was chanting Biblical phrases and kept calling for Moses, Jerusalem and the ‘architect of the universe,’"

"I think he just snapped," Bent said. Police spent nearly 45 minutes trying to get into the apartment, Bent said

Phyllis, who refused to give her last name, said she was friends with Yannick and that the woman would frequently bring them traditional Haitian food.

Mustafa Nashal, who owns a deli a half block away, said Yannick would make him her special chicken and rice a few times a week.

"She treated me like a son. She’d come in every day for five or ten dollars of Lottery tickets. She was here last night," said Nashal, 33.

She once worked at the Marriott at the World Trade Center but left after the hotel was destroyed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, neighbors said.

She currently worked at another Marriott in Brooklyn as a housekeeper, and was also a regular at St. Theresa Avila not far from her Park Place home.

Clare said Michael’s twin brother Marcel, a martial arts instructor, also lived with his mother, who neighbors said was separated from her husband but still on friendly terms.

In addition to his acting, Michael Brea was also an entrepreneur who at one time owned a Subway franchise at 1709 Broadway in Brooklyn. A friend said in 2008 Brea gave out hundreds of free turkey subs on Thanksgiving to feed the less fortunate, a charitable effort inspired by his mother, who was also known to cook for those in need.

But the Subway parent corporation took back the franchise roughly a year ago because of poor performance. Creditors had also placed several liens against the business when Brea owned it, court records show.

Michael talked about his life and goals in an article posted on BelFim.com, a Haitian Internet movie database.

"I remember growing up, and my mother was always feeding people who were less fortunate. My parents raised me to always share and to give charity in the name of GOD!" he wrote.

Neighbors of a Brooklyn woman savagely slashed to death by her deranged, sword-wielding son claim cops refused to enter her apartment early Tuesday despite their pleas.

When cops finally got inside the Prospect Heights home, they found Yannick Brea kneeling with fatal lacerations to her head in a blood-spattered bathroom.

The son, holding the three-foot sword and babbling about religion and repentance, was arrested in a nearby bedroom, police said.

"I could hear her groaning inside ... She was still alive, but they wouldn't go in," said Clinton Clare, 52, who lived in the apartment below the Brea family.

Clare estimated police waited an hour before bursting into the apartment, where neighbors heard Michael Brea, 31, delivering a terrifying rant at his doomed mother.

"I heard a 'Help me!' shriek," said Vernal Bent, 18, who lived in the apartment above. "Police kept knocking on the door. Knocking and knocking ... All of us kept saying, 'Open the door.'"

Neighbors said the first screams came from the apartment shortly after 1 a.m., with one man saying he made a 911 call and told where he told a police dispatcher there was blood smeared on an apartment window.

The man said police initially came to the scene and then left - prompting a second 911 call.

This time, the neighbor said, he wanted outside for cops and led them to the crime scene.Gregory Clare, 25, whose father owns the building, said his dad gave the OK for four cops to break down the door.

"They just kept saying protocol this and protocol that," he said. "Now a woman's dead who should be alive if only the police would have listened."

"It's a barricaded situation and that is handled by the Emergency Services Unit. What happens in a barricade situation is that responding patrol officers, if possible, wait for the Emergency Services forces to arrive," Kelly said.

Brea - an aspiring actor who once played a bit part on "Ugly Betty" - angrily screamed at his mother to "repent" before delivering the death blows.

He apparently removed the murder weapon from a Masonic lodge after a meeting Monday night and then used it later on his mother, said the suspect's uncle.

Brea was a low-level Mason who was not cleared to take one of the ceremonial swords - typically stainless steel blades with a short, black grip.

"Something happened that made him do it," said Martial Brea. "The devil entered him."

Neighbors described a hellish sound coming from the Brea apartment in the middle of the night.

"I heard this wild screaming," said Gregory Clare, who lived in the Prospect Heights building.

"Michael was yelling, 'Repent, repent, sinner, sinner,' over and over again," Clare said. "He was screaming, 'You never accepted Jesus.' It was real loud."

Yannick Brea, 55, howled for help that didn't arrive in time to save her. Neighbors said she was a 9/11 survivor who had worked at the Marriott hotel in the World Trade Center.

"Her screams woke me up," said another neighbor in the four-story building. "Screams I'll never forget. ... I heard [Michael] rambling. He was incoherent."

Michael Brea was spouting gibberish when he was removed from the Park Place apartment on a stretcher, neighbors said.

He was taken to Kings County Hospital for a psychiatric exam after his arrest. Neighbors said spattered blood was visible on the apartment windows.

The accused killer's cousin was stunned by the news of Yannick's death.

"She was a very loving person," said John Brea, 34, as he stood outside the apartment building. "She helped to raise all of us."

John Brea said his aunt was a hard-working woman employed by a local hotel.

Neighbors and an ex-girlfriend described Michael Brea as a martial arts student who showed no signs of any mental illness and no violent tendencies.

"Michael had the whole world in his hands," said an ex-girlfriend. "This is a shock."

Neighbor Clare agreed.

"I saw Michael last Saturday," he said. "He was asking about my daughter. He was always real kind."

Michael Brea, an 31-year-old Haitian American actor who has had bit parts on 'Ugly Betty' and 'Step-Up 3-D' and was the face of the Coca-Cola: Full Throttle campaign held his mother hostage and then murdered her with a samurai sword while screaming Bible passages early today in Brooklyn.

When the police arrived they found an 'extremely bloody' scene and that Brea was combative and mentally disturbed. An officer needed to taser him in order to get him under control. He was taken to Kings County Hospital and assigned a guard.

PIX 11 News is reporting that a source close to the investigation said that Brea used a samurai sword to kill his mother, who was decapitated, stabbed multiple times and was left badly hacked.

On the film site BelFilm.com Michael is quoted from a July, 2009 interview as saying, 'I remember growing up and my mother was always feeding people who were less fortunate. My parents [Marcel and Yannick] raised me to always share and to give charity in the name of God!'

Published: November 23, 2010

It never hurts when looking into an audience of hard-core skeptics to also see the smiling faces of true believers, of people who go back with you more than two decades and who would board a plane on a day’s notice to endorse you with insights that few others could have.

Small wonder Terry Collins made a point of thanking Robert and Mindy Rich for making it from Buffalo to New York on the day he introduced himself as the 20th manager of the Mets with the mischievous declaration, “I’m not the evil devil that people made me out to be.”

Evil devil or evil doer, this was not the man Robert Rich remembered from their plane ride home after a crushing defeat in the decisive fifth game of a 1991 championship series when Collins was managing for the Rich-owned Buffalo Bisons of the International League.

“We had won the first two games in Buffalo and then went out to Denver and lost three in a row,” Rich said. “Terry cried on the flight home to the point where I cried with him. That’s an example of the passion he has for what he does and the effect he can have on people.”

You might think that a man who owns and operates a $3 billion frozen food company would be more likely to befriend guys named Wilpon or Steinbrenner than to relish a friendship with a 61-year-old baseball lifer who never played a big league inning and whose interests seldom stray far outside the lines.

“He’d come to the ballpark early every day — and I mean hours early — and we’d go for a run and talk about baseball,” Rich said. “After a while, I would try to steer the conversation to something else. Terry would get a little quiet and then, before you knew it, we were back to talking about the game. I’m telling you, this man has a love for this like no one I’ve ever met.”

Excuse them for not discussing cures for cancer or third-world hunger, but at the time Collins was managing for the Riches they all had a bad case of baseball on the brain. The food folks were trying to turn Buffalo into a major league city, having christened a downtown ballpark in 1988 that was built by HOK Sport, the retro geniuses of Camden Yards fame.

The plans for expanding the charming park were part of the push for a National League team, as was — in Robert Rich’s mind — having Collins as the face of a fledgling franchise.

“I never said this to him — or anyone, really — but that’s what I was thinking,” Robert Rich said. “Because in the three years that Terry managed for us, he became an icon in Buffalo. People there loved him because you could feel his energy and commitment. We drew a million fans every year, more than some major league teams.”

When the expansion derby concluded in 1993, Buffalo lost out to bigger television markets, South Florida and Denver. Collins by then had moved on, joining the ranks of major league managers in 1994.

The rest of his decade — five second-place finishes in Houston and Anaheim, one fourth-place finish in Anaheim and departures in both places that didn’t cause clubhouse rioting — became the basis for questioning whether Collins was too strident for a team that has made a habit of quitting on managers, as well as on itself.

“I don’t think there’s a groundswell for bringing Mo Vaughn back to New York, so I don’t think Terry will have any problems,” Rich said, referring to the former Mets first baseman who set off a firestorm in Anaheim and supposedly cost Collins the clubhouse.

Lending a woman’s depth, Mindy Rich said: “I would look at what happened in Anaheim the way I would look at someone else’s marriage — who knows what’s really happening inside? And then, as Terry said, he’s probably mellowed. What I would say about him is that he is as transparent as can be. What you see is what you get.”

Collins looked jumpy to start Tuesday’s news conference at Citi Field, but he settled down, showed a sense of humor (he wears No. 10 in honor of Jim Leyland, a mentor, and because, he said, his wife “thinks I’m a 10”). He promised to create a culture that would honor fundamentals, sounding much like Willie Randolph five years ago, only more hyperbolic. He called the current Mets “the finest group of young men I’ve ever met.”

Much has been made of Collins’s absence from the dugout since 1999, as if the rules of baseball have been rewritten. But he has since worked in player development for the Dodgers, managed in Japan, coached the Chinese national team in the World Baseball Classic and been minor league field coordinator for the Mets. Like Bobby Valentine, Collins apparently has some out-of-the-box adventurism in him, which is all good.

And it is, in all likelihood, no coincidence that he landed the big downstate job two years after the Buffalo Bisons became the Mets’ International League affiliate and one year after Collins joined the organization.

Robert Rich said he was not consulted this month by Sandy Alderson, the new general manager, but was coy on whether he had anything to do with connecting Collins with the Mets last year.

“We always talk,” he said of his partners, Fred and Jeff Wilpon. The moral of the story is that it never hurts to have old friends in high, upstate places, especially when they consider you the perfect managerial 10.

"The President reiterated the unshakeable support of the United States for our ally, the Republic of Korea, and discussed ways to advance peace and security on the Korean peninsula going forward," a White House statement said.

The meeting included National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, their deputies and top Asia foreign policy officials.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper; Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and the vice chairman, General James Cartwright, also took part.

Washington's ambassador to the UN Susan Rice joined the discussion by video conference.

The line-up was similar to the roster of officials often called on by Mr Obama for meetings of his Afghan war cabinet.

Related

The initial samples of gas that escaped from a bore-hole drilled into the Pike River coal mine this morning have showed high levels of toxic gases and police have warned they may never reach zero.

Superintendent Gary Knowles said the gas samples were "off the limit" and "you may never get a zero reading".

He added at a media conference this morning: "It is a very unstable environment and currently it is not safe to go underground. It may never reach that point, but if it does, rest assured we are ready."

Questioned as to whether he meant there may never be a rescue, he said: "No, I didn't say that, what I said is it is a long journey."

Pike River Coal chief executive Peter Whittall said drilling broke through into the mine tunnel this morning, and the first samples showed the air was high in carbon monoxide and methane. He said it was also very low in oxygen.

This was expected, but was not the news that families of the 29 miners missing there wanted to hear, he said.

"All I am going to say is that the information we received is that the samples are off the limit, the environment is still unstable, it is unsafe."

He said it was not appropriate to send rescue teams underground at this time.

The 162m bore, which was started on Sunday, hit a 5m-wide roadway in the mine about 7am and was met by a reasonable flow of warm air, Whittall said.

Rushed

Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee earlier said hot gas rushed out of the mine when the drill finally broke through the rock this morning.

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"It had hot gas rushing up it and a lot of hot air as well," Brownlee said.

"It will give a very good picture of what the gas state is in the mine and also the heat state. They are looking for a heat source.

"It is very significant information to the rescue planning," he said.

Brownlee also confirmed fresh air had been confirmed along the 2.2km of mine portal tunnel which gives access to the coal seam and mine working area.

Brownlee said engineers were piecing together data from inside the mine.

"What they do know is if they have another explosion that is caused by anything they do stupid, any chance of survival is gone, and quite possibly those involved in rescue as well.

"What they know is there is breathable air up the top of the tunnel. Beyond that there is considerable gas."

Drilling into the mine tunnel has been going on since Sunday evening. The bore-hole should now enable better testing of air samples for toxic gases in the mine.

Whittall said samples would now be taken at 15 minute intervals and a more detailed analysis would commence.

Camera

A camera has been sent down the bore hole, but the images it is sending back are black and grainy.

It had been anticipated the bore-hole would be completed some time last night, however hard rock had made the drilling difficult.

Whittall said they would start drilling a second hole as soon as possible, however it had changed location slightly since yesterday.

The news comes as police confirmed that the first robot which yesterday broke down in the Pike River mine was restarted this morning - but has since run out of battery power.

A second army robot is making its way into the mine.

The first robot sent into the entrance tunnel has found a helmet belonging to injured loader driver Russell Smith.

The light on the helmet is still going almost six days after the explosion. This was heartening news, Whittall said.

The first robot travelled a distance of 1km up the mine tunnel, before stopping. Whittall said experts are now reviewing footage from the first robot to establish exactly what has been seen.

Bobcat-sized robot

A third Bobcat-sized robot has arrived in Hokitika this morning from Australia.

That robot is purpose-built to traverse dangerous terrain, gather video and audio, detect dangerous gases and act as a two-way communication device.

It is being transported to the Pike River mine this morning.

Whittall said the Australian robot would be tested and then deployed later today.

A fourth robot, from America, will be shipped to Greymouth by Air New Zealand at 7.15am tomorrow morning.

Grey District mayor Tony Kokshoorn told TV ONE's Breakfast this morning that families and the West Coast community are hanging on to hope despite the grim situation for their loved ones.

He said families were subdued and in need of reassurance.

"It's starting to affect them now, they are losing their strength, but we're holding together. We just want someone to tell us if they are dead or alive.

"We know we are loosing hope now, but unless someone shows us otherwise, we are hanging on to all hope."

Frustration

Whittall believes most families understand why it is too dangerous for rescuers to go in get the 29 trapped miners.

He said while there are still a number of families who are obviously frustrated and struggling to come to terms with the decision-making process from the Emergency Services.

But, he says there is a very large understanding amongst the group.

Knowles said he understood the frustration and anger in the community, but the rescuers were working as a team and making decisions on expert advice.

He defended the decision not to enter the mine straight after blast.

It has also been reported that a split is developing amongst the families.

Some have vented anger and frustration over the rescue operation, particularly in the wake of blast footage released yesterday.

Others, including the family of 21-year-old Benjamin Rockhouse, are keeping the faith.

His aunt Margo Mainwaring said the police and mine company have been amazing. She said she has seen locals abuse the media but stepped in herself to intervene.

Mainwaring said if the media keeps telling the story the focus will remain on the recovery.

Brother of Ben, Daniel Rockhouse, who walked out of the mine alive on Friday, told ONE News that he is happy with the way that things are progressing.

He said that he understands it is an extremely tough job and does not want to put other lives at risk, and knows that everyone is doing their best.

TEHRAN, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Iran on Tuesday rejected the reports that it has halted uranium enrichment activities and said that it will produce high-grade nuclear fuel for the Tehran reactor in September 2011.

In an interview with the official IRNA news agency on Tuesday, Ali-Akbar Salehi, head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) , said the reports are "unfounded news fabricated by western media and press."

Such false news ahead of the talks with the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany (G5+1) are for propagandistic purposes, he said.

In its future nuclear movement, Iran will never listen to any unfounded news fabricated by western media, he was quoted as saying.

According to some recent media reports, Iran has faced technical problems in running its centrifuges used for nuclear enrichment.

Earlier on Tuesday, Salehi said that Iran has frustrated the enemies over viral Stuxnet attack on its nuclear plant system aimed to break down its nuclear program.

"The Stuxnet virus penetrated the (nuclear) plant one and a half years ago ... (but) the nuclear researchers of the country have blocked the virus," he was quoted by the semi-official Mehr news agency as saying.

The Islamic Republic said earlier that the computer worm, Stuxnet, has infected 30,000 IP addresses in Iran, including the personal computers of the staff at Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant.

Stuxnet is the first discovered worm that spies on and reprograms industrial systems. It is specifically written to attack SCADA systems which are used to control and monitor industrial processes.

Also on Tuesday, Salehi said that the actual process of producing high-grade nuclear fuel for Tehran's research reactor would start in September 2011, IRNA reported.

Addressing a local gathering in Tehran, Salehi said that 20 percent enriched nuclear fuel sample had previously been produced by Iranian scientists, the report said.

"Production of the 20 percent enriched nuclear fuel in Iran is a firm response to the West," Salehi said, adding that Iran currently possesses a large site to produce 20 percent enriched nuclear fuel, according to IRNA.

In February, Iran announced that it would start enriching high- grade uranium to a purity of 20 percent since the West failed to provide Tehran with the fuel.

Western countries have accused Iran of covertly building nuclear weapons, but Tehran maintains that its nuclear program is peaceful and aims to generate electricity for civilian use.

S. Korean President Lee Myung-bak -- pictured talking at the Seoul G-20 summit -- said the provocation was like an invasion.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

South Korea threatens to punish North Korea "through action," not words

The United States calls the shelling "belligerent action"

Japan, Indonesia, Russia and China also criticize the shelling

(CNN) -- Nations reacted swiftly Tuesday in condemning a North Korean artillery attack that South Korea said killed two marines and wounded 15 soldiers and civilians.

The strongest reaction came from South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who ordered his military to punish North Korea "through action," not just words, the official Yonhap news agency said.

"The provocation this time can be regarded as an invasion of South Korean territory," Lee said during a visit to the headquarters of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in central Seoul. "In particular, indiscriminate attacks on civilians are a grave matter."

The United States also offered quick comment, with the White House saying it "strongly condemns" the "belligerent action" by North Korea.

Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said Defense Secretary Robert Gates was scheduled to speak with his South Korean counterpart Tuesday morning.

"Obviously we're in close contact with U.S. forces, Korea and our allies there in monitoring the situation," Lapan said.

U.S. forces in the area have taken no additional measures, he said.

"Right now it is too soon," Lapan said, adding, "At this point it is premature to say we are considering any action on this.

"Any incidents like this we view with concern. They certainly increase tensions on the (Korean) Peninsula."

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan's Cabinet is to meet Tuesday night to discuss the regional situation.

"The artillery attack carried out by North Korea today was unpardonable and the Japanese government strongly condemns North Korea," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku said in a statement.

"This provocation by North Korea compromises the peace and security of not only South Korea, but also the entire region of North East Asia, including Japan," the official said. "Japan demands North Korea to stop such action immediately. Based on prime minister's orders, Japan will take appropriate measures in close coordination with [the] U.S. and South Korea, as well as other related countries."

"Indonesia calls on both sides to immediately cease hostilities, exercise maximum restraint and avoid further escalation of tension," Natalegawa said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China had taken note and expressed its concern.

"Relevant facts need to be verified and we hope both parties make more contributions to the stability of the peninsula," he said.

Russia's Interfax news agency said Russia condemned North Korea's artillery shelling, pointing out that "those who initiated the attack on a South Korean island in the northern part of the inter-Korean maritime border line assumed enormous responsibility."

"I was really, really terrified," she told The Associated Press after being evacuated to the port city of Incheon, west of Seoul, "and I'm still terrified."

South Korea responded by firing K-9 155mm self-propelled howitzers and dispatching fighter jets. Officials in Seoul said there could be considerable North Korean casualties. The entire skirmish lasted about an hour.

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Each side has threatened the other against another attack.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who convened an emergency security meeting shortly after the initial bombardment, said that an "indiscriminate attack on civilians can never be tolerated."

"Enormous retaliation should be made to the extent that (North Korea) cannot make provocations again," he said.

Meanwhile, the supreme military command in Pyongyang threatened more strikes if the South crossed their maritime border by "even 0.001 millimeter," according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

A statement from the North said it was merely "reacting to the military provocation of the puppet group with a prompt powerful physical strike," and accused Seoul of starting the skirmish with its "reckless military provocation as firing dozens of shells inside the territorial waters of the" North.

Government officials in Seoul called the bombardments "inhumane atrocities" that violated the 1953 armistice halting the Korean War. The two sides technically remain at war because a peace treaty was never signed, and nearly 2 million troops – including tens of thousands from the U.S. – are positioned on both sides the world's most heavily militarized border.

The exchange represents a sharp escalation of the skirmishes that flare up along the disputed border from time to time. It also comes amid high tensions over the north's apparent progress in its quest for nuclear weapons – Pyongyang claims it has a new uranium enrichment facility – and six weeks after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il anointed his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, as the heir apparent.

"It brings us one step closer to the brink of war," said Peter Beck, a research fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations, "because I don't think the North would seek war by intention, but war by accident, something spiraling out of control has always been my fear."

Columns of thick black smoke could be seen rising from homes on the island, footage aired by YTN cable television showed. Screams and shouts filled the air as shells rained down on the island just south of the disputed sea border.

Yeonpyeong lies a mere seven miles (11 kilometers) from – and within sight of – the North Korean mainland.

The United States, which has more than 28,000 troops stationed in South Korea, condemned the attack. In Washington, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called on North Korea to "halt its belligerent action," and said the U.S. is committed to South Korea's defense.

China, the North's economic and political benefactor, which also maintains close commercial ties to the South, appealed to both sides to remain calm and "to do more to contribute to peace and stability on the peninsula," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said.

Stephen Bosworth, the Obama administration's special envoy to North Korea, said he discussed the clash with the Chinese foreign minister and that they agreed both sides should show restraint. He reiterated that the U.S. stands firmly with its ally, South Korea.

Yeonpyeong, famous for its crabbing industry and home to about 1,700 civilians as well as South Korean military installations. There are about 30 other small islands nearby.

North Korea fired dozens of rounds of artillery in three separate barrages that began in the mid-afternoon, while South Korea returned fire with about 80 rounds, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

Two South Korean marines were killed and 16 injured, it said. Island residents escaped to some 20 shelters on the island and sporadic shelling ended after about an hour, according to the military.

The Koreas' 1950s war ended in a truce, but North Korea does not recognize the western maritime border drawn unilaterally by the United Nations at the close of the conflict, and the Koreas have fought three bloody skirmishes there in recent years.

South Korea holds military exercises off the west coast like Tuesday's about every three months.

In March, a South Korean warship went down in the waters while on a routine patrolling mission. Forty-six sailors were killed in what South Korea calls the worst military attack on the country since the war.

Seoul blamed a North Korean torpedo, but Pyongyang denied responsibility.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, center, arrives with Defense Minister Kim Tae-young, second right, at the Joint Chiefs of Staff as the military was put on top alert after North Korea's artillery attack.